The Politics of Language Learning in New Zealand.

Learning te reo Maori, other people learning te reo Maori, using tikanga, acknowledging the importance and value of te ao Maori in Aotearoa is important for us to overcome the past and, with it, decades of inferiorisation and suffering. The importance of Maori concepts in contemporary Aotearoa As well as an ever-increasing number of Maori loan words in New Zealand English, Maori concepts play a growing role in describing societal functions and processes in Aotearoa. Aside from the advantage of this for learning the language, it is invaluable on an everyday level as there are so many Maori loan words in New Zealand English - and it is important for Maori that these are pronounced correctly. Whatever the intent at the time, the status of te reo Maori, tikanga Maori and te ao Maori SP sp [Maori language, customs and worldview] declined steadily until the Maori revival of the 1970s. [Extracted from the article]